Coming from a background in community learning and development, my work in partnership with Banff Academy as part of my PhD research has been an interesting and rewarding experience. I find myself...
Why does a powerful metaphor of learning in our contemporary society poorly convey empirical research, research transfer and applications? This appears to be true of the concept of ‘learning...
Literary criticism of children’s literature focusses on the power relations between the adult writer and the child reader. At one end of the spectrum, this relationship is described as...
We know that research in the field of educational technology has grown substantially in importance over the last decade or so – mainly due to the huge investment by many governments in...
Learning spaces are changing. Classrooms, once filled with uniform furnishings and distinct ‘teacher’ and ‘student’ territories, are being reimagined to provide learning spaces that...
In this blog we consider the more logistical aspects of completing a PhD – namely, ensuring that you have a secure and safe place in which to conduct the fieldwork. We both feel strongly about...
This blog is inspired by two recent experiences. The first was attending Matt O’Leary’s recent seminar at Liverpool John Moores’ University on ‘Observing teaching and learning in higher...
The BERA Bites series presents selected articles from the BERA Blog on key topics in education, presented in an easily printable and digestible format to serve as teaching and learning resources...
In England there are two distinct communities of teacher educators: institute-based teacher educators (IBTEs) employed by higher education institutions (HEIs), and school-based teacher educators...
Some decades ago, several studies advanced an unexpected answer to an age-old question: schools do not help students improve their social positions (see for example Coleman et al., 1966). This...
Spatial thinking as a set of cognitive skills is essential for success in academic, workplace and everyday settings, particularly in the contemporary information age. Existing research shows that...
Although recruitment to undergraduate degrees in engineering in the UK has risen slightly in recent years, concerns remain. Last year, Engineering UK predicted an ongoing 20,000+ shortfall in...